Project management generally refers to the managing of resources, time, cost, and performance to complete a project composed of a plurality of tasks. The tasks typically include managing a number of technically complex project resources, managing funding and budgets, combining and managing the abilities and times of a large number of people, and reporting the progress of a project in reaching one or more goals. A number of project management tools have been developed to assist with management of these tasks. One software based project management tool is Microsoft Project™.
Generally speaking, conventional project management tools, such as Microsoft Project™, provide environments for managing events within a project, with the ability to roll up events, indicate predecessors of events, calculate critical paths, reschedule events in order to optimize the project schedule, generate reports, etc. In this regard, project managers typically input the tasks necessary for the completion of a project into a project management tool along with information about each task, such as task dependencies, resources required, and the estimated times for completing each of the tasks. Project managers are also able to update the performance statuses of the tasks in the project management tool. The project management tools are also able to generate reports on the progress of the project, reanalyze the schedule, compute new estimated times to compete the project, and possibly reallocate resources.
During the planning stage of the project, project managers typically input project management information including projects, project tasks, and system resources, herein referred to as project management information, into the project management tool where it is used to create and store project data objects in a primary database. The project management tool uses this information to create a project schedule. Once the project schedule is created, task status information is input into the project management system in order to monitor and report project progress. The native functions of conventional project management tools include producing a schedule of tasks for a given project, reporting conflicts relating to resource utilization and/or monitoring the progress of the project toward completion based upon input task status information.
The project is typically thus a sequence of tasks utilized to achieve an end result. Project managers typically assign individual personnel (resources) to perform each task, which includes defining which individual personnel are authorized to charge time particular tasks. In addition, project managers typically manually analyze the time inputted by the personnel. The project managers thus spend a relatively large amount of time in tracking which personnel are authorized to charge time to which task as well as in analyzing the time inputted by the personnel. Project managers thus often become bottlenecks in the completion of projects because of the amount of time required to perform these tasks.